A Thousand Crimson Blades
by chigatana-hime
Summary: Yoruichi finds herself in a mission to Hueco Mundo in search of the strongest shinigami in history. Her companions are Shinji Hirako and Hitsugayo Toshiro, both not too happy to be there. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: The Strongest Shinigami

She leapt through the air, crossing two, three roofs a time. She wasn't here on a whim this time—watching her old friends making fools of themselves _was_ interesting, especially with that Aizen business—this time she was here by a certain captain's invitation.

Of course, the Queen of Flash wouldn't just waltz in by the front gate and show the gatekeeper those papers the captain in question had meticulously prepared for her. She would waltz in through the front gate, not show the gatekeeper the said papers, and not be seen in the first place. Illegal entry completed, now, to complete the image, she just needed to learn the waltz.

Yoruichi slipped into the mansion. Byakuya had such a _huge_ one. If not for her natural inborn curiosity and a perchance for illegal entry, she would not have such a good understanding of its layout. If not for her natural inborn curiosity, she would not have been caught wandering clueless in that mansion for maybe a dozen times.

It seemed like the mansion had changed since she last visited—was it a hundred years ago?—gotten bigger and more confusing. Byakuya found her wandering around somewhere vaguely resembling where the harem ladies would live in a typical mansion. It was the stables. The Kuchikis loved their horses, it seemed.

"What did you call me for?" Yoruichi asked while glancing sideways at the closed doors of the stables.

"A job." Yoruichi raised an eyebrow. "This job is for the Queen of Flash." She wondered what job would call on her, with her flashy flight from the Seireitei having made her a traitor of the Seireitei in all manner.

"You can name your payment, if you succeed." Now that was an interesting statement. She starkly remembered Kisuke offering a place in the superhero troupe he was creating, as Karakura Flash. The big stick, and the big carrot.

This was how, no more than three hours later, she found herself in this happy state, weaving through the still landscape with her most unexpected companions and a pack of Gillians behind them, intent on making them into dinner.

* * *

They sat around a fire beneath those crystal-like trees, three figures in that forest of pillars. Yoruichi nibbled on canned sardines as their tiny flame flickered, but a tiny seed of flame that hovered mere centimetres above the ground. Around them loomed the bare bark of trees, stripped of stray leaves and flowers, leaving only a mere skeleton of its former self. The ghost trees of faintly glimmering quartz felt oddly in place with the dead grey landscape of never ending silver pillars reaching into a fathomless dark sky.

"Who decided this assignment, anyways?" Yoruichi grumbled, sprawling out on the barren ground. The figure which sat in the shadow, away from the flame and away from the other two, gave a soft humph.

"Was it the Kuckiki?" Shinji Hirako wore his usual slit eyed frown upon his face. It seemed to be a permanent expression upon entering Hueco Mundo.

The figure in the shadows shrugged. Turquoise eyes narrowed towards Yoruichi. "Show a little modesty," he snapped. Yoruichi rolled over to lie on her stomach. "Please," the voice added, exasperated.

"Kids will always be kids," Yoruichi teased. The young captain gave her a glare, before standing.

"We'd better get going."

They had been sent to find a certain shinigami. There was just a little issue out of the ordinary in the mission. This shinigami lived in the depths of the Forest of Menos. After nearly a day of gallivanting through the hellhole of Menos, Yoruichi knew this was one place she never wished to come back to, much less live in.

"An outlaw, a Vizard, and a chibi captain, on the flee from Gillians." Yoruichi grinned at them. They were running. Again.

"You'll get used to it." Hitsugaya's strained voice showed plainly that he had yet to get used to running away from Gillians, but Yoruichi was positive there was at least twenty behind them.

"If you don't, you're always welcomed to drop dead," Shinji snapped.

Yoruichi laughed and dashed forward. She could hear the grating noises behind her as Hitsugaya struck his Zanpakuto against the trees, chipping away a scar on the shining bark of the trees.

"Are we still going straight?" Yoruichi turned to holler back. Go straight, Byakuya had said, and it will be the shortest route to _her_.

"Duck, or it will be the shortest route to death!" She ducked, eyes wide. Above her head, a crimson blast tore through the trees, quartz turning to dust, then disappearing, fading into the blinding red light.

"Wh—"The dense reiryoku had not made her aware of the new sources of immense power.

"Adjucha."

Yoruichi leapt upwards to avoid the next blow. The red blast tore through the trees like a rampaging beast, ripping through a Gillian. Crimson droplets flashed through the air. A sour, metallic smell tinged the air. Blood. Soft splashes echoed as bits of splattered flesh fell into the pool of bright red.

"That," Shinji mumbled, disturbed, "is a gruesome sight." The Gillians tore at the flesh at their feet. The blood looked like a puddle, compared to the skyscraper-like monsters tearing at it.

"And you'd better fight, before you become _that._" Shinji and Yoruichi cringed.

"Damn Aizen," Shinji scowled. Yoruichi fully agreed. If not for the explicit reminder, not be noticed by Aizen, a Bankai would have finished them all off.

"Damn Hollows," Hitsugaya cursed.

"Damn Byakuya," Yoruichi yelled as they broke apart, charging at the enemy, "for dragging me into this job!" She kicked a Gillian and sent it soaring, crashing into a tree. A snap sounded, the echoing sound of the Gillian's spine breaking. The others swarmed around it, devouring it like a rare delicacy.

They fought with the hollows, yet the more they killed, the more was attracted there. The hollows fought with them, with other hollows. There were more than three Adjuchas now. Yoruichi whipped around, sending a Gillian crashing backwards. She had lost sight of Hitsugaya some time ago amongst all the Gillians. If only all her companions were skyscrapers compared to the Gillians. She laughed at the thought. She leapt upwards, delivering a killing blow to the centre of the Gillian's mask.

There, amidst a couple of Adjuchas, was Shinji. His sword sought flesh and pierced the mask of the Adjucha in front of him. Yoruichi leapt towards him.

"Shō" A cold voice issuing a cold command. Yoruichi whipped around in time to see an insect-like Adjucha slam into a tree. Her golden eyes widened as the tree shattered, together with the hollow. A hand yanked at her top, dragging her to the ground.

"Hello, shinigami-san." A young girl garbed in a shinigami uniform, no more than 15 stared back at her with eyes as dark as a cloudless night sky. "Do you need a hand?"


	2. Purple Rivers

Yoruichi sat at the foot of the mountain range that sprawled before them. The positively gloomy landscape reflected her feelings. At least, Yoruichi thought, trying to think positively, they were heading back to civilisation, at least they had found who they were looking for, at least—Yoruichi looked up at the mountain range, her positive outlook dissipating. Now, they had to cross _mountains_.

Well, she wouldn't call these mountains. They were _monsters._ These things made Everest in the Human world look tame. They seemed to be made of sheer cliffs, its base an annoying slab of stone the size of an island that sprawled in the middle of their path and its tip like the finest point of a pencil. Rope bridges that looked akin to feeble scraps of string dangled from mountain to mountain. Climbing these would not be like those hiking trips with Kisuke. Just three hours ago they had retraced their steps and ended up staring blankly at the vast expanse of mountains where there had only been trees of quartz. Just a mere three hours ago, that reaper had joined them in their silent return.

* * *

They stood in the midst of a scene of carnage. The captain stood in the middle of the battlefield, enormous wings of ice stained red with blood, turning it a warped red, gleaming in tune with the blood splattered quartz. Bankai. Golden irises narrowed. Yoruichi glanced at the small girl in standard shinigami garb. The first thought that came into her mind was, black.

Well, she couldn't be blamed. Apart from her skin, everything else on her was black. Her hair, her eyes, her jet black shinigami uniform, and the black hilt ominously showing from a pitch black sheath. She looked young, too young to be here. And she was counting shinigami years.

"I told you, didn't I, shinigami-san?" her voice was rich, drawling, as if she had been toying with the words on the tip of her tongue, before she let them roll out in her resonating voice. "You can't sense reiatsu here."

"Well then, black nee-chan," Shinji snapped, "would you like to tell us why?" The girl cocked her head and furrowed her brows. With a slender finger, she tapped on her lower lip.

"I don't know." She replied frankly.

She hopped off her perch atop a Gillian's corpse. "Chibi shinigami-kun!" she shouted. Yoruichi could see Hitsugaya stiffen. Her hand went up to her lips as she broke into a grin. "Chibi-kun, you're looking for the reaper of the battlefield, am I right?" Yoruichi could see Hitsugaya turn and regard her scathingly, as if observing a lower life form. It was quite a feat, considering that the girl was a head taller than him.

"Captain Hitsugaya," he snapped shortly. The girl blinked at him. "Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro from the tenth division." The girl smiled.

"Shiko." Hitsugaya raised a silver eyebrow. "My name," she grinned at Hitsugaya. He looked away, wearing a disinterested look on his face. "My name, Chibi-kun," Shiko laughed as she ruffled his hair. Yoruichi could see Shinji turn away, but a snort of laughter escaped his lips. She grinned.

"Reaper," Hitsugaya barked at her. "Shiko," she corrected, pouting, glaring at him. "Whatever," he brushed her comment as he turned away. "Come back to the Seireitei."

It was the wrong thing to say to her. She looked up and grinned, a mocking grin, as she peered at them with black eyes that looked into the depths of darkness, black eyes that had looked into the darkest depths of hell. Hitsugaya stiffened, and turned carefully to face her. She didn't say anything, didn't do anything. She just gazed idly at each of them, her black eyes taking in every twitch, every shuffle of their feet, ever bead of sweat that trickled down their brows as she gazed at them with those eyes. Shinji froze, his eyes wide, his teeth firmly clenched. Yoruichi couldn't move. The air was like a rock, so dense, so heavy as her golden eyes met Shiko's. She could feel herself trembling from fright as she struggled to breathe normally in the air so thick with reiatsu. She couldn't sense the reiatsu; Shiko didn't lie about that. What she could feel was the dark, menacing power that leaked, no, poured, out of the girl, the tortuously suffocating power that seeped through her very pores, the frightening power that clenched at her lungs. She was staring into the eyes of the reaper—not shinigami, souls who graduated from Shinōreijutsuin—but the true skull-bearing reaper who mercilessly tears the souls from their human container. She was Death.

"At this time of the year, you've to pass by the peaks to return to that dimensional rift you created."The words were filled with the dense power she emitted, ringing in Yoruichi's ears. This time of the year? She was right to have decided not to accompany Kurosaki to Hueco Mundo when Uruhara offered. If it changed according to seasons, getting back would become a problem. It was no wonder they had yet to see the sea Yamamoto claimed the reaper lived in even though she was sure they had been going in a straight line. Then again, wasn't this supposed to be a forest?

"If," she looked about, a half amused look hanging about her features, as if she was playing a game that she didn't care much about, choosing her words meticulously. "If, you three manage to reach the Seireitei, alive, I'd go and play along with you all." She was playing a game, a game with their lives on the wager.

* * *

She wished she never came, she wished she never accepted Byakuya's offer. There was one thing she couldn't figure out. She glanced at her companions, the hostile atmosphere that settled over the two seated around the fire with her. Up on one of those quartz branches, the last and newest member peered innocently down at them. Byakuya was not one to act without any consideration. So why, then, did he choose three such people who just seemed to be so incompatible, not only in terms of fighting, but also personality?

"We're low on water," Shinji snapped, juggling his water flask idly from hand to hand, making her flinch. She subconsciously felt her own flask and cringed at the weight. "Reaper," Shinji called, without even glancing up. "Know any water sources around here?"

"Well, there's the sea, three weeks to the east. There's also the salt-water lake, somewhere to your left, say, four days away? Oh and there's the geysers, and that polluted well—"Shiko replied, furrowing her brows, appearing to search her memory of places which hosted the most inedible liquids.

"I mean water that you can drink!" Shinji snapped back at her.

"Um—"Shiko bit her lower lip, swinging her legs from atop the tree. Shinji glared up. "—there's that Adjucha water hole somewhere up in the peaks. There's also that stream, but it's a year away—" Yoruichi could see Shinji twitch, annoyed. She felt for him. It was hard to tell if Shiko was doing this deliberately or not.

"Freakin' hell, I meant nearby!" He lashed out with his sword, brutally striking the tree Shiko perched upon. The girl's eyebrows shot up, in a look of realisation.

"Oh—" she hung from the branch, legs hooked onto the flimsy looking thing as she dangled from the height. "Why didn't you say that in the beginning, bad-tempered shinigami-san?" Shinji sighed loudly, burying his head into his hands before resuming his usual deadpan expression. Yoruichi turned away, grinning. Shiko dropped to the ground, landing with an almost inaudible thump. She held up her hand to Yoruichi.

"Would you hand me that?" she grinned down at her, pointing to the water flask. Yoruichi unhooked it, handing it to her. Hitsugaya disinterestedly placed his on the floor, from which Shiko scooped it up. She walked pass Shinji, who held out his to her. A mischievous smile on her face, she ignored him.

"What's it this time?" he asked, tired voice tinged with annoyance. Shiko stuck out her tongue at him.

"How'd you expect a lady to do everything for you all?" she accused. "Come on!" she shouted, striding off into the forest seemingly aimlessly.

"You call _that_ a lady?" Shinji asked scathingly to nobody in particular, before following Shiko, grumbling. Hitsugaya sighed, reminding Yoruichi of old men at the sight of a pack of noisy kids.

"Shinji really isn't good with kids, is he?" Yoruichi grinned. Hitsugaya glanced at her.

"A kid, huh?" he asked, eyes unfocused. "_That's_ what's scary."

* * *

He bent down refilling the flasks. Somehow, in the middle of the road, he ended up carrying all of the flasks. He turned wearily to check on his companion. Somehow, he got the feeling that if he did not watch her, she'd wander off somewhere whimsically. Shinji scowled. He wasn't a babysitter, the last time he checked. The reaper sat on the bank of the bubbling river, her legs dangling into the water.

"You'd lose your sandals like that." He dipped another flask into the purple-hued water. Was this liquid even drinkable? Sure, Shiko had gulped many mouthfuls upon reaching the river, but she wasn't exactly the most normal shinigami he'd met.

"I can always borrow someone else's," she replied cheerfully.

"I'm not lending you mine," Shinji replied quickly. He raised the flask and sniffed cautiously at the water. The purple-hued liquid was a stark contrast to the clear liquid most people was used to drinking. Well—he had never heard of any liquid being purple before, too. "Is all water here purple?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Well, it turns red after you throw a body into it, and grey for a while after Gillians walk through it—" Shinji looked away quickly. He had got to learn not to ask.

"But, it's beautiful, right?" He looked at the shimmering water, lit up by the pinpricks of light that shone through a pitch black sky. The soft purple hue and the silver trees that reflected the purple reminded him of twilight in that never changing darkness of Menos. Watching the shimmering lake that seemed to be lazily going about with its own business reminded him of those calm days so long ago, when he was still in the Seireitei.

"Keh," he retorted. "I guess it isn't that bad."


End file.
